ferguson in focus. the president will hold key meeting today about the unrest in ferguson following the grand jury decision on officer darren wilson. how can the country move forward on such a divisive issue? a u.s. couple barred from leaving qatar even though the court clears them in the death of their adoptive daughter. why they are not allowed to leave the country. and brace yourselves. it is cyber monday. the biggest online shopping day of the year. what you need to know before cracking open the laptop and breaking out your credit card ahead. >> if you can't pay for it by january, don't buy it. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans.

4:00 a.m. in the east. the obama administration focusing on ferguson and the aftermath. the president holding a series of meetings with law enforcement and elected officials and faith leaders. these meetings will cover federal programs that provide military equipment to local police to building trust with law officers. the attorney general heads to atlanta today. he kicks off a series of nationwide public conversations with a meeting and speech at ebeneezer baptist church. five members of the st. louis rams raised their hands in the don't shoot gesture that is symbolic in the ferguson protests. the st. louis police officers association criticized the players for doing this. in ferguson, the streets remained quiet following the

resignation of wilson. that city will increase minority representation on its police force. cnn's ed lavandera is in ferguson with more. >> reporter: john and christine, the streets have quieted since the riots one week ago. darren wilson is not a police officer. he turned in his resignation over the weekend and the mayor said no payments will be sent to darren wilson. the mayor talked about bridging the gap with the african-american community here in ferguson and its police department. announcing a series of steps and incentives to bring more african-american police officers to the force. the mayor here sounding like he wants to focus on the future and turning the page on the bad time. >> we continue to move on and officer wilson and his family has moved on. the city of ferguson is talking

about how we can bring the community together. >> reporter: john and christine, the focus is getting the businesses that have been shutdown over the last week back up and running. when you look up and down many streets in ferguson, stores have had to board up and organically people have painted the board-up windows, the symbol after such a terrible week. >> ed lavandera, thank you. a nationwide walk-out in communities affected by police violence. ferguson action is urging people to walk off their jobs or leave class at 1:00 p.m. and two years, jailed in qatar, the hopes of freedom is raised and shattered. morgan and grace huang were sentenced in prison. when they got to the airport,

immigration officials prevented them from blocking their plane. matthew huang says there is a warrant for their arrests on unknown charges. >> we are tired of the process that seems like it will never end. the court process was long and tedious and never until today's ruling did we hear truth from any justice or anyone involved in the court process. now again, we are finding ourselves stuck and waiting while we were promised we would be allowed to go. >> secretary of state john kerry is speaking out on the flight praising the appeal's court decision and saying it is time for them to return home. how far can you go in a facebook or twitter post?

anthony elonis is trying to get his threat against his ex-wife overturned. he was sentenced to 44 months in prison. he claims the posts were artistic and cathartic and free speech. justice ruth bader ginsburg says she will be back on the bench this morning following the heart surgery last week. we are following breaking news in nigeria. reports of gun battles in the city of damaturu. reports of boko haram launching an attack and intense fighting. all of this happening right now. we will keep you updated. let's turn to the battle of isis. the coalition is refocusing the battle on raqqah. more than 30 u.s. air strikes

hit raqqah overnight. in afghanistan, the taliban is stepping up its pressure on the capital. the chief of kabul resigned. the chief did not give a reason for stepping down. i want to start on the fight with isis with cnn's nic robertson in london with more. >> reporter: good morning, john. a lot of the step up on the international campaign on isis is focused on kobani. it is a border town with turkey and visible from across the border. we have seen the air strikes impacti impacting. kurdish fighters have gone in against the fight of isis. the real fight is raqqah. the town they took over two years ago. they had beheadings on the streets and executions by other means on the streets. it is where effectively the

government is. the islamic courts are there and bigger or more secure jail systems were believed to be there. going after raqqah which is what it appears the coalition is doing according to the syrian observatory of human rights is going to the heart of the isis problem. has the leadership scattered in advance of the coalition campaign is not clear. that is where raqqah made a stance. any attack will have a significant impact. john. >> let's shift to afghanistan, nic. new leadership in the country. a new surge of violence created by the taliban. >> reporter: you have this new leadership. president gani and representative abdulla

abdullah abdullah. possibly a vote in support of bilateral agreements with the united states and nato to continue to support afghanistan as it transitions to running its own security at the beginning of next year. out of 102 parliamentarians, 7 voted against it. they will keep bolstering the operation resolute against the afghan security forces next year. the reality is the taliban is trying to match that. two significant attacks in kabul over the weekend and the attack on the british convoy. one is a british security worker, aide workers killed and a base handed over in helmand. that attack by the taliban. they are sending a message. >> symbolic, to say the least.

nic robertson, thanks so much. new concern about sports related concussions after the body of missing ohio state player kosta karageorge. police say it appears karageorge died from a self inflicted gunshot. his parents said he has had several concussions and confusion spells and complained of the symptoms before disappearing last wednesday. the ohio state athletic official said they were shocked and saddened by his death. his teammates say he will be missed. >> he had the great stories. always laughing. you get to sit down on the couch next to kosa, you will walk away remembering something. >> his body was identified through tattoos. nine minutes past the hour. time for an update on cyber monday. the biggest online shopping day of the year.

made up by the industry to get you to spend money. expected to be bigger today. in the united states, online sales are expected to reach 2.6 billion. that is expected to be a 16% increase from last year. the industry knows how you love to spend your money. 127 million people expected to shop online today. one difference this year, cyber monday is no longer a one-day event. amazon is calling it cyber monday deals week, berman. it lasts eight days. target is pushing cyber week. best buy dropped it and offering cyber saving. more convenient deal shopping. more reasons for you to spend money you have, not on a credit card. make sure these gifts arrive by christmas. stocks looking weak despite the spending. u.s. stock futures. they are lower. stocks around the world are lower. oil prices are plunging. this is a huge business story. these oil prices down to $64 a

barrel. potentially destabilizing when you have them move from $107 a barrel this summer to $64. >> just to back up. are you telling me cyber monday is not a real holiday? >> cyber monday is made up by industry marketers who want you to spend money. john, come on. 2009, it did not exist. how did we live without it? >> i don't know. 11 minutes after the hour. new clashes erupting in hong kong. some of the worst unrest in the two months of demonstrations. we will go live there with what sparked the latest round of violence. growing anger after a facebook post of the obama daughters goes viral. should a republican staffer lose her job over the comments she made online? [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing.

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violence escalated overnight with police and pro-democracy protesters in hong kong. the two clashes at the city's business district. police tearing down barricades. protesters surrounding government headquarters and charge on a main east/west avenue nearby. our senior correspondent ivan watson is there for us. he is live in hong kong with the latest. good morning, ivan. bring us up to speed about, i guess, a new turn in the protests. >> reporter: that's right, christine. we were here before dawn this morning and there was certainly clashes taking place. the demonstrators tried to occupy new territory. they tried to block off the entrance to the government headquarters here in an effort to kind of, as their leaders put it, paralyze the government to get more concessions out of it for what they say are their democratic demands.

the police after being pushed back a little bit after about an hour or two, they came backswingibackswin back swinging batons and pepper spray and clearing the area. i can say the scene is clear at the moment. this has been a tent city that sprang up more than two months ago as a result of the dispute over how the future elections will be held in hong kong and as we have seen over the past 24 hours, the police, the government are not going to tolerate the protesters trying to occupy fresh territory, but they don't seem to be making any move whatsoever against the sprawling tent city, which again, has been in place here for more than two months. so this test of wills, this marathon sit-in continues. >> marathon sit-in.

ivan watson, thank you. lawmakers head back to capitol hill today. they face a jam packed agenda. they have until december 11th to pass a government funding will. angry over the executive action over immigration. stay tuned. that is one of the big things we are watching. on the democratic side, outgoing massachusetts governor duval patrick is blaming the losses on president obama. he said the president, quote, wasn't very good about delivering a clear, concise message. >> election day was a good day for republicans. a bad day for democrats who don't stand for anything. when democrats stand for something, or grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe, we win. >> patrick told "meet the press"

he thinks hillary clinton would be a great candidate. there are growing calls this morning for republican congressional staffer to resign. elizabeth lauten has taken a dig on the first daughters on facebook. she works for steven fincher of tennessee. she criticized how the daughters carried themselves last week. she said, quote, try dressing like you deserve respect, not at a bar. brian stelter talks about why the story has received so much attention. >> reporter: i think the story has gained traction because historically, the first daughters and sons of presidents have for lack of a better word have been off limits. they consider scrutinize the

adults, but a sense people don't go after the children of presidents. that is probably why this has gotten so much attention. it is interesting this woman is a communications director. she works with the media and speaks to the press and public for the congress member. now she is in the pr nightmare, i would say. it all started because of the facebook post on thanksgiving. it was barely noticed until a reporter at the african-american web site the root noticed it. now there has been calls for her to be fired. i'm not sure that will actually happen. we have not heard from the congress member about this over the weekend. they may be trying to wait and see if it blows over. it gets to the point i was making the children of presidents have been off limits. that was true for george w. bush and bill clinton and all into the past as well. it is one thing to criticize the

president and say as she did, your mother and father don't respect their positions or the nations, but another thing to say try showing a little class. that's what created so much outrage in the case. that's why people are waiting to see what the congress member is going to say. back to you. >> thanks, brian. this was at a turkey pardoning ceremony. >> a lot of people remarked on the girls' expresses at the eve event. when you start talking about what they were wearing, i think it crosses the line. >> brian, thank you. you can go to facebook.com/earlystart. we have a shocking story from georgia. a father accused of hiding his son behind a wall for years. how he was finally found and emotional reunion with his mother. and janay rice breaking her

silence. what she says about the night her husband knocked her unconscious, what that says about the spark of national domestic violence. a secure retirement.

a new home. earning your diploma. providing for your family. real associates, using walmart's benefits to build better lives for their families. opportunity. that's the real walmart. the world health organization announcing it has not reached its goal in the fight against the deadly ebola outbreak in west africa. the group wanted to isolate 70% of the sick and bury 70% of the

dead by today in sierra leone and new guinea. the father and stepmother accused of hiding a 13-year-old boy behind a wall in their georgia home will remain in jail. a judge denied bond for a gregory jean and amanda davis for the cruelty to children when the boy was found over the weekend behind a wall camouflaged with towels. gregory jr. was reunited with his mother after he was reported missing four years ago. ray rice and his wife janay are speaking for the first time since the former baltimore ravens running back was suspended for assaulting his then fiancee in a hotel elevator. in the "today" show interview, janay talked about her feelings after the incident. >> i was furious. we came home and we didn't talk the entire ride. i didn't speak to him the entire ride home. he tried to talk to me.

i didn't want to hear anything. i just knew he hit me and i was completely over it. i was done. i didn't want to hear it. i didn't want to entertain him. in the back of my mind and in my heart, our relationship would not be over. i know this is not us and it is not him. >> in a separate interview, she said the two have been attended counselling and they are more ex committed and stronger. ray rice is free to sign with any team who will have him. >> interesting to see if any team takes that risk. those flying home from the holiday weekend, they faced a huge round of travel woes. thousands of flights delayed and hundreds canceled on the busiest travel day of the year. the security line at midway international airport in chicago

was reportedly over a mile long. >> 1.2 miles. midway is huge. >> that is crazy. 15 million people were expected to travel 50 miles or more from thanksgiving marking the highest volume since 2007. a mile long. >> if you are watching from an airport lounge trying to find your way, good luck. >> goodwill toward men. much more ahead, including president obama's big day ahead focusing on ferguson and the grand jury decision. we have that ahead. >> let us march on to victory.

focusing on ferguson. president obama spending his day talking about ferguson with his cabinet and civil rights leaders and police. can they come up with the strategy to lessen the anger? the nightmare for a u.s. couple in qatar is not over. cleared for the death of their daughter and the country will not let them return to the united states. we have a live report. it's cyber monday. the biggest online shopping day of the year. what some companies are doing to get you to break out your credit card ahead. oh, yes, the whole scam to get you to spend your money. >> i thought it was a federally mandated long weekend. >> welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. there is a big series of meetings at the white house about ferguson. president obama talking with

se civil rights leaders and faith leaders. the meetings will discuss military equipment provided to police departments. attorney general eric holder heads to atlanta to kickoff a series of public conversion says with a meeting and speech tonight at the ebeneezer baptist church. five members of the st. louis rams raised their arms as they took to the field, the hands up, don't shoot gesture. what you have evseen in the protests in ferguson. in the streets in ferguson, the streets were quiet over the resignation of officer darren wilson. our ed lavandera is in ferguson this morning with more. >> reporter: john and christine, the streets of ferguson, missouri, have quieted dramatically in the last week since the riots and violence of

a week ago. darren wilson is no longer a member of the ferguson police department. he turned in his resignation over the weekend. the mayor accepted it. there will be no severance package or payment to him. the mayor talked about bridging the gap with the african-american community and ferguson and the police department. announcing steps and incentives to bring more african-american police officers to the force. the mayor here sounding like he wants to focus on the future and turning the page on this bad time. >> i think it is best we continue to move on as a community. officer wilson and his family have moved on. the city of ferguson is looking to talk how we can bring the community together. >> reporter: john and christine, the focus is getting the businesses that have been shutdown in the last week, back up and running. you look up and down the streets here, the cities that board up

here, people have painted up the boarded up windows. a symbol of what was left behind. john and christine. >> nice to see that city coming back to life. nine officers involved in the 2012 claims a pattern of harsher discipline for african-americans. this happened in 2012 that involved a 25-minute chase and ended in a hail of 137 bullets. two unarmed people died. both african-americans. this comes on the heels on the shooting of a 12-year-old boy in cleveland last week. nearly two years in jail in qatar, an american couples hope for freedom is raised and dashed. matthew and grace huang were convicted of starving their daughter to death in 2013.

they were sentenced to three years in prison in qatar. a appeals judge set them free, then they were blocked from boarding a plane. i want to get to our representative who attended the hearing in court. what can you tell us about the couple's legal status? they have been fighting for freedom for years. an appeals court goes their way. they go to the airport and they are stopped. why? >> reporter: hi, christine. i think there are some facts that people are not aware of, which is the procedure to get travel bound listed in qatar after the court clears a person. it takes a few days. a recent judgment has to be obtained from court, signed by the judge, in order for the airport authorities to be notified. also a petition has to be filed with the attorney general and

prosecutor's office in order for the travel ban to be lifted. it is a bureaucratic procedure that takes a few days. i'm not sure if it was a lapse in communication with the parties that led the huangs and the representatives from the agency working with the huangs that think they can go to the airport without obtaining or fulfilling this procedure or they were guaranteed to do it without necessarily going through the procedure. i think this is where they stand now. there is not a new arrest warrant against them. they were able to leave the airport last night and stay at a hotel. i spoke to eric volz a couple of hours ago from the agency. he said they are booked for another flight in the afternoon. they will try to go to the airport again. i'm not sure if they have spoken with their lawyer to see if he filed the petition with the

prosecutor's office or not. there seems to be a miscommunication with the parties. >> a miscommunication or red tape. if you look at it from the perspective from those in the united states, this is a legal system that is very different than what we are certainly used to. this family is essentially trapped in qatar, right? >> reporter: it seems to have been like that for the past several years. i think yesterday's judgment was satisfactory to the huangs and media watching closely. the judge went through extensive measures to explain how his panel reached the verdict and found them innocent. by the way, they were not convicted with starving the child to death, they were charged with that. the issue was they put the child in harm's way. there was no evidence they

actually starved her to death. the judge went through that evidence and said there was no evidence to show they even neglected the child. they were passed as innocent. it is just a matter of waiting and seeing how many more days this procedure will be fulfilled in order for them to fly home safely. as it is now, there isn't another arrest warrant against the couple. >> all right. thank you so much. doha-based journalist. 38 minutes after the hour. how far you can go in a facebook or twitter post may be decided this morning. anthony elonis is hoping to get his posts overturned. he posted graphically violent lyrics about his wife. he said they were artistic and free speech. so far, he lost his appeals. ruth bader ginsburg says she will be back on the bench

following last week's heart surgery. new concern about sports related concussions after the body of missing ohio state football player kosta karageorge was discovered on sunday. he was found in a dumpster with a handgun nearby. police say it appears karageorge died from a self inflicted gunshot. his parents said he had several concussions and confusion spells and complained of those before he disappeared last wednesday. ohio state officials say they are shocked and saddened by his death. his body was identified because of his tattoos. 39 minutes past the hour. cyber monday. in the united states, online retail sales are expected to reach a record $2.6 billion. a 15% increase from last year. 127 million people are expected to join in at least shop around to get a deal. this is the biggest online shopping day of the year. it is no longer a one-day event.

it was devised in 2005 to get you to spend money online if you didn't spend over the weekend. web sites pushing week-long deals to give you more opportunities to spend money. savvy shoppers will hold out closer to christmas. the big steals are before the holidays and right after the holidays are over. the stock market right now. stocks are looking weak despite the spending frenzy. the big story is oil prices are plunging. oil prices back to $64 a barrel. really could have a destabilizing effect for couples in the energy industry. it has a lot of ramifications for saudi arabia production and u.s. production. >> geo political for iran and russia. it is terrific for the holiday shopping. it is a huge tax break. however, it is dropping so low, it will have an impact on other

things going on. 20 minutes until the hour. impressive effort under way to save the most endangered animals. cnn goes along with rangers in south africa as they try to protect rhinos from poachers. a live report next. my name's louis, and i quit smoking with chantix. i had tried to do it in the past. i hadn't been successful. quitting smoking this time was different because i got a prescription for chantix. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. the fact that it reduced the urge to smoke helped me get that confidence that i could do it.

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this guns fire, tranq dart.

>> we have more on the effort to protect the rhino by basically hiding them. diana, you have done remarkable reporting here. >> reporter: thanks. this is what they are doing. they are trying to relocate the rhinos close to the mozambique border where the poachers are coming into the kruger national park. they are trying to move the rhinos from the poaching hot spot to a more protected part of the park and possibly to other nature reserves and parks further away from the border. of course, there are poachers from within south africa, but the rangers tell me the problem is coming from mozambique. and it shows a 250 kilometer border with the kruger national park. the park is home to 10,000

rhinos and they are slaughtered at a rate of 2 or 3 a day. people were telling me they think there are 10 to 15 poaching groups within the park at any one time. all of this, john and christine, is fuelled by the belief in asia that rhino horns are a status symbol and it has a medicinal purpose. >> obviously, moving a rhino is not an easy thing. that is part of the effort to try to save them. >> reporter: moving it is extraordinary to watch, especially the speed with which they do this. they have to dart the rhino from a helicopter in the air with an

immobilizer. they work to get dna samples and micro chip the horn to trace the horn if it is poached to a particular carcass and make inroads to who did the killing and which syndicates were running the trade. within about 15 minutes, they give the animal another reversal drug to get on its feet. it is loaded on a trailer and off on its way. they reintegrate into the new habitats easily. they integrate with the animals easily within 12 hours, they seem to be happy. it is part of a much bigger picture that needs to start with cutting the demand in asia. back to you. >> that is something. thank you. ray rice wins his appeal and his wife, janay rice breaks her silence. what she says about the night her husband knocked her unconscious.

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it is world aids today. people around the world are expected to take parts in funding and prevention. 34 million people around the world have it. to help raise awareness, prince harry will join other celebrities revealing a secret

online video. this is part of a campaign to help end the stigma and shame of aids. protests have erupted across egypt after the court acquitted hosni mubarak. the former president was cleared of causing the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the 2011 uprising that toppled him from power. one is dead and several injured between clashers and protesters in cairo. a reporter was asking questions when she and the interview interviewee heard gunshots. >> are they really shooting? >> this happened in charleston, west virginia when delancey was following up on a story.

he and the woman he was speaking with were not hit. ray rice and janay rice are speaking out for the first time since he was reinstated. janay talked about her feelings immediately after the incident in a "today" show interview. >> i did not speak to him the entire ride home. he tried to talk to me. i didn't want to hear anything. i just knew he hit me and i was completely over it. i was done. didn't want to hear anything. i just didn't want to entertain it. entertain him or anything he had to say or an explanation. in the back of my mind and in my heart, i knew our relationship wasn't over. i knew it wasn't us and it wasn't him.

>> in a separate interview, she told espn she is speaking out. >> and a possible super bowl preview yesterday. the green bay packers beat the new england patriots, 26-21. aaron rodgers threw two touchdown passes. the packers held off tom brady. both teams are now 9-3 on the season. there was another winner last night. peyton manning. he didn't play a great game. the denver broncos lead the chiefs, 29-16. the broncos also 9-3. the patriots hold the tie break in the afc. >> the packers are looking good. >> they looked fantastic. aaron rodgers.

54 minutes past the hour. gas prices drop again. will gas prices fall further? it is good for consumers, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? we will have an "early start" on your money next.

almost the top of the hour. let's get an early start on your money this monday. not a very good start to december for stocks around the world. asian shares ending lower. european stocks moving lower. u.s. stock futures are moving lower. let's relish november. a great month for stocks it turned out to be. dow and s&p climbed 2.5%.

nasdaq gained 3.5%. december is the second best month for stocks historically. today is not off for a great start. freefalling oil prices. right now, crude oil is $64 a barrel. do you see that chart? that is the lowest in five years. oil prices down 40% from the summer peak. quickly, 40% right off the price for a barrel of crude. production is boom in the u.s. last week, opec countries decided not to trim output. that means over supply and driving prices down. global demand is weakening. the average price at the pump for a gallon of gas is $2.78. gas is expected to stay this cheap through next year. some, john berman, predicting $2.50 for much of 2015. >> a cautionary tale. it seems to snap the other

direction nearly right away. don't get greedy. "early start" continues right now. ferguson in focus. president obama holds a series of big meetings today about the anger and unrest in ferguson. that following a grand jury decision on officer darren wilson. how can the country, how will the country move forward on such a divisive issue? a u.s. couple barred from leaving qatar although a court cleared them in the wrongdoing of the death of their adoptive daughter. why aren't they allowed to leave? it is cyber monday. how are you celebrating? have you decorated the credit card or keyboard or whatever you are supposed to? we will tell you what you need to know before you go online to shop and shop some more. >> decorated the keyboard. >> cyber monday. the holiday that didn't exist